Service Learning

Events:

A coming together of the Ramapo College community
- faculty, students, staff & administrators -
to perform needed service projects in our surrounding communities

The Idea

Ramapo Community Volunteers (RCV) has come into being from the desire of many in the College community to bring the various members of our community together to become better acquainted and to serve the common good through performing monthly service projects in local community settings.

The Pilot

Because of an identified need in the community, Ramapo Community Volunteers began with a pilot project in Hackensack on Friday, August 29, 2003. In cooperation with the Interreligious Fellowship for the Homeless of Bergen County, Inc., fourteen members of the College community served dinner to 74 of Bergen County 's homeless citizens. In addition to the fourteen, several others contributed time, money and goods to this worthwhile effort.

The Future

Each month during the academic year the Cahill Center will partner with a local community organization to offer a group service project for ten to twenty volunteers. Projects may range from feeding homeless people at a soup kitchen to performing trail maintenance at a neighboring environmental center to reading to children in celebration of Dr. Seuss Day and anything in between.

In addition to on-site people-power, some of the projects will require monetary donations. For example, if RCV is scheduled to provide and serve dinner for 100 people, volunteers will be needed to help defray the costs of the food to be purchased. Beyond this, behind-the-scenes volunteers will also be needed to purchase items and prepare and cook various dishes. With as many members of the Ramapo community contributing as possible, our work in the community will be not only fulfilling, but light and joyous as well.

Projects will begin as close to the end of the work day as possible and be of about two hours in duration.

For information about upcoming projects, please contact Karen Booth in the Cahill Center at ext. 7447 or by e-mail at kbooth@ramapo.edu